Almost universally, Giants fans love Dusty Baker, who might have been the most popular and successful manager in the team's San Francisco history. At least until Bruce Bochy won a World Series.

Baker has returned many times as manager of the Cubs and Reds, and now he's coming back for the first time as a postseason foe.

Someone told him he might be the one opposing manager who'd get cheered by more than 40,000 at China Basin.

"Some of 'em," he said, cracking a smile.

It'll be more than some.

Baker's journey, which started as a kid in Sacramento and continued as an outfielder for both the A's and Giants, batting coach for five years under Giants manager Roger Craig and a 10-year stint as manager, capped by the 2002 World Series appearance, has come full circle.

In Saturday's Game 1 of the Division Series, he'll manage at AT&T Park in the postseason for the first time since Game 5 of the '02 Series, a 16-5 Giants romp, which preceded a trip to Anaheim and two days of ... well, you know the rest of the story.

All these years later, Baker still fits in.

"This is my home," he said. "People know that I'm from here and my wife is from here. I still live here part time. I just like the people here. I like the attitude.

"I like people doing their own thing, but basically not hurting anybody, and it's just kind of my crowd of people. I grew up with half of the people around here, and my relatives are from around here.

"We'll see if they still love me on Sunday."

Sunday?

"I hope we start out 2-0."

While Giants fans won't be rooting for Baker once Saturday's opener begins, plenty of them rooted for him in recent weeks after he suffered a mini-stroke. At a news conference Friday, Baker, a tad thinner at 63, said his "energy level isn't all the way up."

He said his wife, Melissa, daughter, Natosha, and son, Darren, limit his time on the phone, and Natosha forces him to eat healthy, which might have been one reason she didn't join him for dinner Thursday night after his team arrived in town.

"I love my daughter, but she had me on couscous and fixed me pastas and made me eat oatmeal every morning," Baker said. "Turkey burgers, turkey bacon and that kind of stuff. She wants her dad to live a long time, and I do, too."

"I'm feeling great, but I have to watch my energy level so that I'm right for the game - and the whole game."

He suffered the mini-stroke Sept. 21 when he was in a Chicago hospital getting treated for an irregular heartbeat. Friday, he said he was blessed that the mini-stroke occurred where it did.

"I wasn't really that scared," he said. "If it happens to you, it might as well happen when you're in a hospital, right? I mean, shoot, if things aren't right in your life, if they can't take care of me, who can?"

In Baker's absence, the Reds were run by bench coach Chris Speier and went 7-4. Now Baker's mission is his first World Series title as a manager, something that he nearly got with the '02 Giants.

"Sometimes it stings at me, but you've got to leave it in the past," Baker said. "You can't live in the future and stay in the past. But I'm still here and have an opportunity to win a championship here.

"It let's you know that time never stops. Time goes very quickly. Doesn't seem like 10 years ago my boy was 3 years old, being pulled off the field."

That's when 3-year-old Darren went to fetch Kenny Lofton's bat near the plate during a Game 5 rally, only to be scooped up and hauled to safety by J.T. Snow.

It was Baker's final home game as Giants manager. He bolted after the season, in part because of a falling out with ownership, but he never turned his back on the community. And vice versa.

I asked him if he draws any comparisons between the 2012 Reds and 2002 Giants, and he said he "genuinely" likes the Reds' players as he did the Giants' players. He also mentioned that his recent health scare reminded him of the winter before the '02 season, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

"You start seeing the birds chirping a little more, and you start seeing the moon, and you start seeing some things you didn't really pay attention to," said Baker, whose contract is up after this season, though he expects to keep managing in 2013.

"Maybe this was a sign that I'm supposed to stay where I am," he said. "I believe in signs."

Whatever he decides, wherever he goes, it's good to know there's a fan base that'll be on his side.

Postseason glance

NL wild card

Cardinals 6, Braves 3

-- Chipper Jones' final game marked by infield-fly controversy. The Cardinals move on to face Nationals.